It was another sweltering day of 90+ degree weather, and another Foxes Cross Country meet. This meet was a good test of what the Regionals will consist of in a few months. The Benton 6+ is so named due to the fact that it originally had 6 teams, but it kept adding teams making it the 6+. This year there was only 5 teams but they were high quality teams consisting of the Benton Rangers, West Frankfort Redbirds, Chester Yellow Jackets, Webber Township and the Hamilton County Foxes.

The boy’s JV race was the first race of the day and the Foxes had two participants in it. Trenton Butler and Clayton cross ran good races and both of the placed receiving medals for 6th and 14th place. After the JV race the Varsity Boy’s stepped to the starting line. Benton quickly took off and owned almost all the top spots. Tyler Byars worked his way up from about 5th or 6th place up to get with striking distance of 1st place right before the 2 mile marker. Tyler took over 1st place and never looked back winning the race by over 30 seconds. Matt Rubenacker, Chad Barnard, Johnathon Jaegers and Logan Hunt worked up infiltrating the lock that Benton had on the top spots heading into the 2nd mile, unfortunately Chad, Johnathon and Logan had off races and dropped out of the top 10 to finish 12th, 21st and 19th. Alex and Clay Ragan came from behind and worked their selves into position to finish in the top 5 of the team with Clay finishing in 5th overall and Alex finishing in 15th. Matt Rubenacker stayed strong and ended up with a fourth place finish. The Foxes came in 2nd place as a team to the strong Benton Rangers squad. The Rangers will be tough to beat in the regionals this year.

The girl’s race was the final race of the day, usually it is the first race of most meets. Leslie Drone took off flying and took the lead from the very start of the race and never looked back. Leslie won the race with no problem. Also starting out fast was Jayda Johnson, she took off way faster than she should have but she was out to make a statement. Jayda ran hard and has been working hard all season and she will continue to get better as the season continues and she gains experience. Jasmine Coomes and Raegan Halley worked on being the 2nd and 3rd place runners on the Lady Foxes and in the end Jasmine finished in 7th place barely outlasting Raegan who placed 8th in the meet. Maddy Holloman ran a hard fought race and narrowly got out sprinted by a West Frankfort Redbird at the end of the race to come in 16th overall. Maddy was closely followed by Schuyler Bailey (17th), Kaylee Chapman (18th) and Leah Ragan (20th). Jayda Johnson ended up shortly after them. The Lady Foxes were outlasted by the West Frankfort Redbirds to take 2nd place losing by only one point. The Lady Foxes will get another shot at the Redbirds on Thursday at West Frankfort and will also see them again at the Regionals.

The Foxes next race is Thursday September the 10th at the West Frankfort Park. Races start at 4:30 with the Girl’s varsity race. We hope to see you all there.